[1] In 2008, Ciudad Juárez was designated as “The City of the Future” by the prestigious magazine “Foreign Direct Investment” published by the influential “Financial Times group.”.

[2] However, the city is also a site of widespread poverty and violence, including an infamous series of unsolved murders of female factory workers.

Troops and Federal Police forces were ordered to move into hot zones where drug cartels operated—especially in Michoacán, Tamaulipas, and Ciudad Juárez.

On February 17, troops from the 20th Motorized Cavalry Regiment carrying out a surveillance mission in Ciudad Juárez raided a safe house belonging to the Juárez Cartel; in the raid 21 suspects were arrested along with the arrest a huge amount of drugs, weapons, ammunition, military and police uniforms and three vehicles were seized.

[6] On March 27, Secretary of the Interior Juan Camilo Mouriño announced of Joint Operation Chihuahua as a strategy to combat organize crime in the state.

[9] On April 8, in the city of Villa Ahumada, the Army received information of a funeral process that was held for a drug trafficker known as Gerardo Gallegos who belonged to the criminal group of the Juárez Cartel.

[10] On May 17, presumed members of the Sinaloa Cartel attacked Villa Ahumada, Chihuahua, and killed the police chief, two officers, and three civilians, as well as kidnapping at least 10 additional people.

[11] On the same day acting on information from an anonymous source, military personnel from the 76th Infantry Battalion and 4th Armored Reconnaissance Regiment were sent to a ranch called "El Alto" located near the town of Hidalgo del Parral.

[23] On January 13, Secretariat of Public Security Genaro García Luna informed that he will send another 2,000 Federal Police forces to Ciudad Juárez.